At the Northern Fort

From now on, I'm gonna live independently, without relying on Mother or the One-Eyed Knight and everyone else.

At times it feels like even I might forget about it, but in my previous life I was human. That's why I think I'm on the more level-headed side, which is more than enough to get by on my own!

I won't care even if the One-Eyed Knight and everyone start to say that they're lonely, and I won't ever let them stroke my belly! Never again!

I'll be the most independent three-year-old ever!

As I cheered myself on like that in my head, I continued down the main road that had not a single sign of life on it.

The fairy flew a short distance in front of me as a guide, and if I fell behind even the slightest, it would stop and wait for me.

When I turned around, I could see the Northern Fort, as well as the leisurely townscape a short distance from it.

Though I had thought that I had walked quite a bit already, it seemed that I haven't quite left my home area yet.

The next town over also seems to be a small settlement, so there weren't any people going down this road leading to it.

It'll probably get busier as I get closer to the bigger towns and the Capital, but all there was around me right now were fields of potatoes.

Though the weather was nice, it was quiet and lonely……

Finding a small but tenacious clump of snow at the side of the road, I stomped on it in retaliation to clear up my mood.

The fairy started to circle around me as if to say, "Don't go making detours", so I reluctantly continued to walk forward.

"Say something~"

I found travelling alone to be boring, so I tried talking to the fairy, but all it did was flicker as though it were embarrassed.

"Ah, look! Over there!"

I turned my nose towards a grassy field that spread out just in front of me on the left side of the road.

I knew the area, as I had gone there a number of times. It's the grazing area for the fort's army horses.

Inside that rather vast plot, the horses would eat grass, or run around happily.

Right now Ilus and Leader aren't here, but I've become pretty close to the other horses as well.

For a brief moment, all my loneliness was blown away as I happily shouted, "Yay!" and dashed towards the pastures. The fairy tried to lead me back to the road, indicating, "It's not that way", but I ignored it.

There's still plenty of time, so just wait for a bit.

The fencing meant for the horses was too tall for me to jump, so I easily squeezed through the bottom of it and joined up with the horses.

Crying out, 'kyun kyun' in greeting, the horses brought their noses closer to me in response. The horses further away were also going, "What is it? What's going on?" as they approached.

I played with them to my heart's content for about 30 minutes. I rolled across the grassy field together with them, rubbed my body against the ground, and raced with them, only to lose by a large margin.

Ilus would take my short legs into consideration when racing with me and let me win, but today she wasn't here so I ended up losing all my matches.

I was quicker when it came to my starting dash, but it took no time at all for them to catch up and surpass me. Not only that, but even though I was desperately moving my legs as fast as they could go, my opponents weren't even taking me seriously. They ran leisurely and beautifully.

Wagging my tail as I watched everyone dash around joyfully, I thought to myself, ahh, I just wanna stay here with them forever.

I wanted to nonchalantly join the horses when they returned to the fort.

For a brief moment, I considered pretending that I went on the errand while secretly hiding in the stables for a period of time, but the letter that Mother left me seems kind of important, so I'll have to go to the Capital after all.

I let out a small breath, and then said my farewells to the horses.

"It's about time that I go."

I thought that maybe one of them might want to come along with me, but nobody did.

So sad……

Just as I was leaving the pasture, I noticed the fairy sitting on top of the fence like a daifuku. Seems like it gave up trying to bring me back on schedule midway and was waiting here this entire time.

"Thanks for waiting."

As though to say, "You're finally back", it puffed up back into a full sphere, and then the fairy once again started to guide me.

The bunny rucksack swayed as I stepped on the hard ground with my paw pads and walked.

After obediently following it for a while, watching the fairy fluttering before my eyes, I was finally unable to restrain myself and ended up biting it and holding it in my mouth.

It had a ball-like shape, and was just the perfect size for holding it in my mouth. Not only that, its movements were just so fascinating that I grew unable to control myself. I could feel a nice and cold temperature on my tongue.

And then, the fairy appeared to get angry as it buzzed and began to vibrate. Thus, I opened my mouth and let it go.

Yes yes, I'm sorry, my bad.

While I had such an exchange with the ball of light that could not speak, I suddenly sensed an approaching fire energy and looked upwards.

In the empty sky was a tiny ball of flame.

I was already quite accustomed to this scene, so I took a step back and waited for his arrival.

The fire spun around like a whirlpool as it grew larger before turning black as it reached my size. And then, before I knew it, the flame had turned into the small black panther that lightly alighted onto the ground.

Perhaps it was the difference between a feline type and a canine type, but his body was softer and his movements were more graceful than my own.

"Good morning Kugalg."

A black panther with a menacing look in his eyes looked back at me, with his long tail standing erect behind him.

Lowering his head, he thrust his head directly into my fluffy chest.

"Uu……"

He put quite a bit of force behind his thrust every time, so it always caused me to fall on my behind, but apparently his head thrusts were an expression of affection, so I endured it.

Kugalg rubbed his head against mine gently, and then, satisfied, he returned to his previous position.

"Milfiria. Hm? ……where is this place?"

After happily calling out my name, Kugalg finally turned his gaze towards the surroundings. Observing that the surrounding scenery was different from that of Snowlea Mountain or the inside of the fort, he then saw the fairy and exposed a puzzled expression.

"Kugalg, I've been waiting for you!"

I also raised my tail and welcomed him. This might be the first time I've looked forward to his appearance this much.

I was confident.

If it's Kugalg then-! Kugalg will definitely come with me to the Capital!

"Waiting? For me?"

Kugalg's red eyes sparkled.

I explained to him that I was going to the Capital on an errand, and asked if he would come together with me.

"I'll be lonely on my own, so let's go together! 'No road is long with good company*', right!"

Though he tilted his head at the Japanese saying, Kugalg nodded at my request and said, "Got it. I'll go".

As expected of Kugalg!

"Yay! I'm so happy!"

With this, my loneliness will be dispelled.

Seeing my exceptionally delighted expression of happiness, Kugalg turned away bashfully.

"But, we might have to hide the flame on your tail."

On the tip of Kugalg's long and thin tail was a red flame that remained constantly lit. It would probably surprise some unknowing human if they were to see it.

Even though my mind was spinning in circles trying to propose ways to hide the flame, Kugalg himself spat out a simple solution.

"Got it. Then I'll put it out."

"How are you going to put it out?"

Tilting my head as I looked back at him, Kugalg made a grand swing of his tail to the right.

As he did so, amazingly the brightly burning red flame on the tip of the tail went out.

"Eh!? You can put it out? Is it okay for you to put it out?"

I asked while trembling in confusion. It's because I had arbitrarily come up with the idea that the flame on the end of Kugalg's tail would only go out when he died.

But apparently, Kugalg's tail flame wasn't particularly an indicator of his lifeforce. When Kugalg made a grand swing of his tail to his left, the flame was restored, and when he swung it to the right, it went out again. He explained as though it were a trifling matter.

"I'm fine even if it goes out."

So that's how it was. That surprised me.

Then, I'll have him keep it out for the duration of our journey so that we don't stand out so much.

"Then, please keep it like that."

"Got it."

"Alright, then let's set off! We'll do our best to get to the Capital! ……yay!"

Being a party pooper, Kugalg did not cooperate and respond to my shouts of encouragement, so I ended up shouting a response myself.

Kugalg's still a child too, so he gave me the feeling that 'if something were to happen, I'll have to protect him'. Thus, I couldn't relax as much as when I was with Mother or the One-Eyed Knight and the others.

But, my footsteps had gotten quite a bit lighter compared to before. It's nice having a travel companion other than the fairy.

Things might be getting a bit more fun.